TOMMY Brewer admits he needs to grow up fast if he is to cement a regular spot in Wealdstone’s first XI.

The teenage full-back cum utility player has endured a frustrating start to life at The Vale, confined mostly to the bench and not ‘feeling the love’ from boss Gordon Bartlett – a stark contrast to life at previous club Bedfont Town where he was something of the blue-eyed boy.

Brewer thrived under the constant encouragement of Peacocks boss Garry Haylock so has found the ‘less hands-on’ approach of Bartlett a difficult adjustment.

However, he now realises he must generate his own inner confidence if he is to progress in his career.

He said: “I love a gaffer when he has got his arm around me, that’s when I perform. I play off a gaffer that loves me. That’s what I did last year with Garry Haylock at Bedfont.

“He used to speak to me after every game telling me what I was doing and wasn’t doing and that helped me a lot and I benefitted from it.

“But Gordon is not that type of manager, so I’ve got to do it myself now.

“I’ve got to grow up and just play, do without the arm around the shoulder and find my confidence somewhere else.”

It is perhaps a sign of this professed greater maturity that Brewer, who started in Tuesday night’s 6-0 win over Feltham in the Middlesex Senior Charity Cup, is prepared to embrace his ‘utility man’ tag to get a start in Saturday’s FA Trophy visit to Merstham.

The 19-year-old made clear on arrival with Stones he had designs on the right-back shirt, but with regular incumbent Scott McCubbin available for the trip after serving a one-match ban, Brewer knows he may have to do a job elsewhere to get a chance to shine.

“I’ll play anywhere on the pitch. I don’t mind doing it because I just want to play,” he said.

“Being only 19, people say to me I’m not in a rush to play and that I can relax and just learn.

“But I feel I want to play as much as I can so I can get as good as I can. I want to keep pressing on. When I was at Bedfont last year I’d gone up a level and now I want to keep going up at Wealdstone.”